Launched in September, ‘Being Victor’ is a live action teen drama shown online at MTV.co.uk. Interestingly it is the first mainstream online drama to offer curricular support for teachers to unpack the topical themes within the classroom.

The content is pretty hard hitting and aimed firmly at young people. Through 20 episodes following the life of Vinnie Dupe, his friends and his online alter-ego Victor Sage, teachers are able to engage students in PSHE and Citizenship matters, tackling critical issues such as relationships, identity, sex and promiscuity, depression and being a young carer. Here is the explanation:

Vinnie Dupe’s life feels like a bad sitcom.

He is in love with his best friend Eva, who just started dating Danny – who still keeps seeing Vinnie’s sister, Lesley, on the side.

Vinnie’s best friend Doyle is struggling with his responsibilities as a student and carer for his dad – and his promiscuous lifestyle is getting out of hand. It’s no wonder Vinnie decides to create a supercool online alter ego called Victor so he can put the world to rights on his blog – but then things start to get out of control…

The way it works is that each online episode will be accompanied by a lesson plan on the TrueTube website which explores one of the PSHE mapped themes in that episode, or the series as a whole. Lesson plans accompanying the series will generally fit into a 45 minute lesson structure, but are also broken down into 15 and 20 minute modules, and can be adapted or extended to suit your schedule.

Being Victor is also supported by an online blog – www.victorsblog.co.uk – which forms part of the storylines, as well as a forum where teachers can encourage young people to discuss the key themes at the heart of the show.

Of course, it could also be a useful resource in youth work environments for raising issues around sex, relationships, cyber-bullying, etc. Have a look and see what you think.